


Comfort Lasts the Night

by dandelionknight



Series: Bubbline week 2019 [1]
Category: Adventure Time
Genre: F/F, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 08:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18149636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dandelionknight/pseuds/dandelionknight
Summary: Late night conversations don’t fix everything but at least they’re something.Set shortly after Stakes.





	Comfort Lasts the Night

It was expected, it was routine, and it was a problem. It was also 3:17 in the morning. Bonnibel wanted nothing more than to be asleep but her body had become accustomed to waking now and her ears strained for the familiar sound of her window being opened by careful hands. They were careful, yes, but not without some incidental noise. The window was shut just as gently. Cold air brought the intruder’s familiar scent: strawberry juice, cheap soap and anxious sweat. 

She didn’t move, just waited. She didn’t need to roll over to know who it was anyway.

No footfalls fell on her cold bedroom floor despite the shadow moving across the wall. It would be terrifying, if she didn’t already know it belonged to someone she welcomed into her bed. Albeit preferably under better circumstances. 

A heartbeat. One, two then three. 

The sound of cloth being pulled over skin and the strange absence of the usual thwump of clothing hitting the floor. Protective layers were removed and neatly placed at the foot of the bed to be dealt with in the morning.

Half the time her ‘visitor’ was gone before she got up, leaving nothing but rumpled sheets and nervous questions buzzing in the back of Bonnibel’s mind. The other times the princess provided some of her own clean clothes, breakfast and whatever else she could.

All of this excessive care, like someone living in a world made of glass waiting for the shatter, put her on edge.

They pulled back the covers and slipped into bed, lying on their side, curled up a bit and facing the wall.

This too was typical. 

She waited, knowing the other wasn’t asleep by breathing and stiff posture. A brief internal debate warred but, in the end, she decided that doing something was better than nothing. 

“Marceline, we need to talk about this.”

The reply was tired, resigned. “I know.”

The weight of a dead world on slim, undead shoulders. So many years pressing down, pressing them both flat and preserved as flowers within the pages of a thick, forgotten book. You lose so much when you live so long. 

“I don’t know how to help you Marcy. I really, really want to but I don’t know.” 

“I know,” the vampire breathed the words.

Rustling of sheets as blankets pulled higher. Marceline was pulling further in. 

_Glob it._

She shifted closer. 

“Are you ok with being touched right now?”

The vampire didn’t answer for short while. Thirty seconds maybe; she counted them off in her mind with the beat of her candy heart. One, two, three…

“Yeah.”

The princess shifted again and pulled the other woman in close, Marceline’s tank top and her own nightgown made for a flimsy barrier from the cold body pressed against her chest. She gingerly smoothed back some of the short black hair that had strayed over the vampire’s face, tucking it behind her ear with fingers made bolder by night. 

“Tell me if there’s anything I can do?” 

Bonnibel heard the shuffle of sheets and felt Marceline nod.

“This. This helps.” 

The admission was even less than a whisper but Bonnibel heard it all the same. Her brilliant mind churned in its search for possible solutions but that wasn’t what Marceline needed right now; she didn’t need the genius scientist or the benevolent princess. She needed her here in the now. She needed her friend. 

She let her hand travel from Marceline’s hair to around her waist instead. Just being there wasn’t enough but it was something. The vampire sighed and relaxed a little against her. 

The princess closed her eyes and pretended things were almost normal. Her mind drifted toward sleep.

“It’s cold, Bonnie. When you’re a vampire for long enough you don’t notice it’s always so cold.” 

Her eyes snapped open. She hummed a little noise of confirmation to show she was listening. 

“I only realized after…” The sentence died in the air but they both knew its conclusion; something better left unsaid. 

Not for the first time, Bonnibel wondered if she had made a mistake. Wouldn’t be the first time she went too far and messed everything up. Wouldn’t even have been the first time she screwed things up with Marceline.

“Its… hard. Readjusting. It’s too loud too. But also too quiet. At home I can hear the fridge downstairs and the spiders running along the walls but I can’t even hear myself breathe.” The words were punctuated by the sound of fabric balled up into a clenched fist.

It was the most Bonnibel had heard her talk about it – being a vampire – since she was one again. So much had happened, so much gained and lost in that short time. The adjustment would, logically, be difficult. 

She was, once more, at a loss for what to do.

“…is it too loud here?”

“No, it’s good. I can hear your heartbeat again which is weird but also good in a way, I think.” A laugh without a joke. “I mean it means you’re alive.”

The princess filled in the blanks. _It’s better than not hearing my own._

“I’m sorry. I never should have…it was stupid of me to think –”

With some adjusting, Marceline turned to face her. For the first time that night she looked her in the eyes; dark and bright. 

“Don’t be. You were only doing what I asked and it was good to be sort of human again, even for a little while.”

Bonnibel smiled weakly and reached over to tuck another stray dark lock that had fallen out of place.

“Ok,” she whispered. “And now?”

“Hmm?”

“Things aren’t good now, are they?”

Thin grey arms wrapped around her middle. Bonnibel pressed a kiss to the top of the vampire’s head before resting her chin there. 

Marceline murmured against her collarbone. “No, but I think they will be, eventually.”

It didn’t sit perfectly well with her; her instinct was to fix and improve things. Leaving well enough alone wasn’t in her nature; a trait and a flaw Bonnibel was well aware she possessed. But the vampire queen wasn’t the only one with a long life lived and even longer ahead of her. Time taught her that some things, especially other people, simply can’t be rushed. Sometimes all you can do is be company for the journey. 

“Promise me we’ll talk about this in the morning?”

“I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for day one of Bubbline week- the prompt is 'promises'. Thanks for reading!


End file.
